A MS Coast casino is first to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all employees
D’Iberville MS Aug 28 2021
Nearly 900 employees at Scarlet Pearl Casino in D’Iberville must get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Friday to stay on the job.
“Most have already had their two shots,” CEO LuAnn Pappas said Thursday.
The deadline to get the first shot is 9 a.m. Friday, and Pappas said she will know then if any of the few holdout employees choose to leave their job rather than get the vaccine.
In July, Pappas was the first casino operator in Mississippi to require vaccinations for all salaried employees. They were required to get their first shot by Aug. 14.
Now it extends to all employees, and Pappas said that while she did get some negative feedback
“We’re never going to apologize for being concerned about people’s safety and well being. There’s too much at stake,” Pappas said.
In March, Scarlet Pearl began paying employees $300 to get fully vaccinated. That’s an investment of a quarter-million dollars, she said.
To make it easier for employees to get a shot, the casino partnered with Memorial Hospital and held at the clinic on the casino property.
She said it was “a monumental task” to get the staff vaccinated and something people didn’t
She knows why other casinos and business owners haven’t made vaccine mandatory for their employees, Pappas said.
“They think you’re going to lose people,” she said. Finding people to work remains difficult during the coronavirus, but Pappas said businesses are going to lose staff if they are infected with the coronavirus and become severely ill or die.
Scarlet Pearl also has upped the minimum salary for employees, she said, unless they are in a position where they get tips and come under IRS guidelines.
“We just need people to get vaccinated,” Pappas said, and Scarlet Pearl is helping make that happen.
She donated $50,000 to kick start a vaccine lottery program created by business leaders in South Mississippi to encourage people to get vaccinated.
Scarlet Pearl gave $15,000 for a promotion to get workers at the City of D’Iberville the vaccine and another $150,000 for a public promotion for the vaccine.
The casino is a vaccination site, where the public can walk in the front door, go up the escalator or elevator to the second floor and without going into the casino can get a free vaccine.
People need to call the Memorial Hospital COVID-19 Hotline at 228-867-5000 from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. for an appointment.
